I bought a sharpening stone

[NOBD]

Starting with a blunt knife on a 1000 stone wasn't easy for me as a first-timer. I put in a lot of effort and patience and thought I hadn't achieved much (I couldn't cut through paper and I thought (wrongfully?) that wouldn't be very hard to achieve). However, when I cut some tomatoes I found out that the knife was quite a bit sharper than it was before using the stones. So, I'm not there yet (not looking for razor sharp though), but I think I can make this work. It looks like this now:

I think I might try to put the clamp a bit further back to get a smaller angle on the stone. Good idea?

 

[itsstillmatt]

How old is the knife? Has it ever been sharpened before by somebody else?

 

[foodguy]

for me one of the learning steps was recognizing the "burr" of excess metal that forms on the edge of the blade when you've done one side enough. then sharpen the other side until the burr reduces, then repeat as necessary. paper should be pretty easy -- that's my main test when i'm sharpening ... fold it in half to stiffen if you need. another test i use when i'm cooking (to see if i need to steel), is to touch the blade to my thumbnail. it should grip rather than slide off. it might be cutting better even though it's not sharp because of the microserrations.

 

[NOBD]

Thank you, foodguy. I did the nail test (something I remember from my childhood when checking if my pocketknife was sharp ), and it didn't really grip. That's why I thought the whole operation had failed, until I did some actual cutting: fortunately, it was sharper than before I started.

I am going to try to get a better result in a few days and will pay attention to the burr next time.

 

[NOBD]



How old is the knife? Has it ever been sharpened before by somebody else?

I'm not sure, but close to fifteen years, I guess. It has been sharpened before, via a local kitchen store that offers knife sharpening.

 

[CBrown85]

Pull-through sharpeners; good or bad? Salesperson today told me to go ahead with it, but i'm apprehensive.

 

[itsstillmatt]



I'm not sure, but close to fifteen years, I guess. It has been sharpened before, via a local kitchen store that offers knife sharpening.

So, what foodguy says is right. Raising a burr and then deburring is what sharpening is all about. That is A1. The second, though, is that there are really two issues with sharpness. The first is the edge itself, and the second is the metal behind the edge. One reason knives "stop getting sharp" as they get older is that the edge keeps rising up the knife each time it is sharpened, but the knife is thick up there, so it becomes really hard to put a good angle on, and even if you can, it is thick behind the knife so that anything hard you cut will kind of snap as the whole knife goes through it. With an older knife you may need to spend some time thinning the knife behind the edge before you can put a really usable edge on it.

 

[foodguy]



Pull-through sharpeners; good or bad? Salesperson today told me to go ahead with it, but i'm apprehensive.

pull-through sharpeners are the clip-on bowties of cutlery.

 

[itsstillmatt]



pull-through sharpeners are the clip-on bowties of cutlery.

Nanoo-nanoo.

 

[Thomas]



pull-through sharpeners are the clip-on bowties of cutlery.

oh, that's quite good.

 

[NOBD]



So, what foodguy says is right. Raising a burr and then deburring is what sharpening is all about. That is A1. The second, though, is that there are really two issues with sharpness. The first is the edge itself, and the second is the metal behind the edge. One reason knives "stop getting sharp" as they get older is that the edge keeps rising up the knife each time it is sharpened, but the knife is thick up there, so it becomes really hard to put a good angle on, and even if you can, it is thick behind the knife so that anything hard you cut will kind of snap as the whole knife goes through it. With an older knife you may need to spend some time thinning the knife behind the edge before you can put a really usable edge on it.

Thanks. It's old, but I've only had it sharpened once, maybe twice, in all those years . So the second is probably not relevant yet?

 

[foodguy]



Thanks. It's old, but I've only had it sharpened once, maybe twice, in all those years . So the second is probably not relevant yet?

with a knife that dull, it could take 25 to 30 minutes to put a good edge on it the first time. keep after it and touchups should only take 5 or so after that. but my guess is you've got a lot of bad metal you've got to get rid of.

 

[itsstillmatt]



but my guess is you've got a lot of bad metal you've got to get rid of.

I am using this for the second time today -

 

[CBrown85]



with a knife that dull, it could take 25 to 30 minutes to put a good edge on it the first time. keep after it and touchups should only take 5 or so after that. but my guess is you've got a lot of bad metal you've got to get rid of.

 

[NOBD]



with a knife that dull, it could take 25 to 30 minutes to put a good edge on it the first time. keep after it and touchups should only take 5 or so after that. but my guess is you've got a lot of bad metal you've got to get rid of.

I'm gonna give it another shot though!

Just to be sure: by bad metal you mean the knives themselves or the "knife edge situation"? In other words: discard of the knives or prepare for more sharpening work?